At our last month’s meeting Saturday April 19, 2014 we had a panelists group of six of
experts in the field of publishing; marketing, editing, and book cover artists. They asked for any brave authors who were open for ideas. I felt a nudge to speak out but stopped out of fear. At the last minute I shouted out, “Have room for one other?”
My heart was racing and sweating when one of the panelists looked at my cover and said “It needs to be redesigned. Sorry, but the cover looks as if it’s a stock photo, the mix of text centered and left justification does nothing for the book.” Another panelist said “You have a killer subtitle however it’s hard to read as it blends in with the sun.” I was somewhat hurt, but knew they were correct. It was a stock photo and my design that I tried to convey to the book artist.
That afternoon I contacted Nick Zelinger with nzgraphics and explained to him what had happened along with Melanie Mulhall. I told Nick, “You are the expert at book cover designs and I ‘trust’ you will come up with a design that fits the expression of the book.”
The key was to trust people, trust the unfoldment, and trust God. The constructive criticism was making me stronger, so that I can stand in the truth of who I am and not be ashamed. The new cover really does express the impact of the story and of course, it is FANTASTIC!
The new cover created a “pop” causing the reader to pick-up the book, turn it over and be inspired.
The book is completed and published. Fantastic is available from my website www.fantasticitsfriday.com and will be available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iBook by the end of the month.
Thank you CIPA and associate members for making it all possible.
Kirk B Axelson aka Mr. Fantastic
Read more about Kirk here!